1958 235 chevy

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seems like we are all over the place some say use no detergent and some say detergent some say 10w30 , 10w40 and some say 30w ,,, lol i dont know about the zddp some use it and some no use ,, i am more confused now than before lol

i dont know

thanks guys i'll stay posted to see whats said next
 
I think I'm the only one who is a fan of non-detergent for your motor. All the other guys are in favor of a detergent oil. If it were me and my motor, I would go non-detergent because I'm hard-headed and stubborn (German/Scottish ancestors - which makes me cheap and hardheaded). To everyone's credit, these guys know oil and know it well. Follow their advice. If anything, I would at least stick with a single grade (30w). The after market filter set up is a great idea and in my opinion, something you should consider. That way, all problems are solved.
 
Well i just bought what i started with 30 w from adavance it dont anything about detergent on the can so i thing its deterent or it would say non on the can and i got some zddp also, , i dont know how much to add i will figure it out, , igot the cheaper oil i will change more offten i have a shop with drive on rack, its not the hard to do, ,

Thanks
 
I was told (a LONG time ago) that the rule of thumb is that if an engine has a filter, use detergent oil, if not then use non-detergent, and for the exact reasons specified by GreeCguy above.

However, that may be another one of those old wives' tales that has since been debunked. If Mola says use detergent, I would believe him.

I also concur that you should use a straight 30.
 
Great car and engine you have.
When I had a '57 Chevy Bel-Air with this engine in the 70's, I used 10W-30 (detergent), with occasional 10W-40 use. The car went over 150K before rusting out. The engine had been rebuilt once, and was still good.
 
all done went with 30w and added zddp ,, here is the car guys


no 17 wheels i have the stock 14 with red spinners

thanks guys for the input
 
Widman recommends using a CH-4/SL or CI-4/SL (without CJ-4) HDEO for maximum valve train protection and a good CI-4 oil contains 1000-1200 PPM of phosphorus. See Corvair Oil Recommendations.
Originally Posted By: "Widman"
Since the additives are polar, they fight for surface area. The addition of extra ZDDP usually results in reduced cleanliness, higher engine temperatures and more deposits. Some studies have shown that going past 1400 ppm of phosphorus will increase wear over the long term, and going above 2000 ppm will begin to break down iron and result in camshaft spalling.


Adding 4 oz of ZddPlus to 5 quarts of SA oil results in 1200 PPM of phosphorus. See ZddPlus Certificate of Analysis. If your oil already has 600 PPM of phosphorus (minimum limit of a Starburst oil), adding 4 oz of ZddPlus to 5 quarts of your Starburst oil will result in a phosphorus content of 1800 PPM, which would be excessive.

I wouldn't use SA (non-detergent) oil in any engine newer than 1930. See Impact of Low Quality Oils on Engine Wear and Sludge Deposits.
 
Originally Posted By: lilrobo
thanks guys i'll stay posted to see whats said next

I understand GreeCguy's point about non-detergent oil. I would agree with him for sure if the engine wasn't recently rebuilt and had been run on ND oil all its life. If that were the case, I'd say use ND oil over very short OCIs and hope for the best.

That's not the case, though. You still don't want overly long OCIs in an application with no filter, ND or not.

As for ZDDP content, it wasn't that high in oils of the time. I see you made your choice and it's perfectly valid.

If I still had that early 1950s truck and was worried about modern PCMOs, I'd just run Mobil Delvac 1300 10w-30 or something similar and be done with it.
 
I've owned vehicles for over 46 years and never knowingly used a non-detergent in any of them(I briefly used a off brand that made big claims but the engine was building sludge within 3-4K mi)... If they were sludged, I cleaned them up the best I could and went with detergent oil, never had a failure...

Originally Posted By: dave1251
I have to agree that in the 50's the oil would of been group I oil with a very minimum amount of additives and a monograde.


Yeah it's kinda hard to use something that did not exist...

Not using today's better oils makes zero sense...
 
Yep, hard to recommend a detergent multigrade when the beast was not available. Besides, the thing was speced for leaded gas and we're not going to fuss about that now.

No filter is simply going to mean shorter OCIs, realistically.
 
Since this car wouldn't likely see much cold winter driving, I'd use HD30w in it full time and change once a year pending on miles driven. Since engine has been rebuilt and cleaned, there is no worry of sludge breaking free and might as well keep it that way. I'd still look into installing one of the partial-flow filter systems of the day on it though.
 
Would QS Defy in 10W-30 fit the bill? It would cover the need for ZDDP and is a detergent oil to help keep the engine clean.
 
Originally Posted By: fraso
The OEM bypass filters for 235s were add-on items.

Thanks for the links. That's definitely starting to refresh my memory. When I think back to how it was mounted and from the pictures in your links, I'm almost certain it was a bypass filtration rather than full flow. I doubt that anyone had taken the time to retrofit a full flow setup. In fact, it looked almost identical to the first picture in the last link you provided. I just can't for the life of me remember what brand he used for the drop in filter. Given his supplier choice at the time, if I were pressed to guess, it would be Wix or AC.

@2010_FX4: Personally, I can't see why not.
 
In the early 70's, my oldest brother bought our aunt's 1956 Chevy (not sure which model anymore but she had to quit driving and sold it to him for a song)...it was a 4 door sedan with the "stove bolt" six, a manual (3 spd. on the column) trans, heater and RADIO. He used it as his daily driver for several years (if I recall, he and my dad rebuilt the engine at some point as it was consuming a quart of oil every couple hundred miles). I had occasion to drive it when he'd let me and I was always surprised at how well the car drove (my parents had a newer Olds at the time which I was used to driving). The only issue was the brakes...they were marginal at best and guaranteed to pull with anything other than light use (you just learned to compensate by keeping a tight grip on the wheel when braking). The car met it's end when he drove it off the road in a snowstorm and a big rock took off the driver's side A frame in the front suspension (I mean literally tore it off the car). Oh the good 'ol days....
 
Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
Non-detergent 30 weight. Since you have no filter, the detergent oil will keep particles in suspension and increase engine wear.


Since when? How many OPE engines are there that run no filter and detergent oil in use every day? This notion that running detergent oil in a rebuilt engine is false. The only time you keep using non-detergent oil is in a non-rebuilt engine that has used non-detergent oil all its life. In 1958 this Chevy would have used API SB oils, which had some mild detergents in them. I have several Wisconsin Air Cooled engine manuals from the 1940's and 1950's, they warn about the use of non-detergent oils causing sediment build up and blocking the oil pump plunger pickup in the bottom of the pan.

I have seen the sediment build up in oil pans that non-detergent oil cause. It literally can be inches thick and scraped away in layers. On a freshly rebuilt engine, or one that has had the pan dropped and cleaned, I would use what ever HDEO you can get easily.
 
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